Historically Speaking Lecture with Dr. Robert Lucky

Middletown Arts Center

36 Church StreetMiddletown, NJ07748USA

As part of its Historically Speaking lecture series, Monmouth County Historical Association is pleased to welcome Dr. Robert Lucky who will give a talk entitled Research and Development in Monmouth County; a Storied Past and an Uncertain Future on Sunday, June 23 from 2:00pm - 4:00pm. The lecture will be held at the Middletown Arts Center at 36 Church Street, Middletown.
Research and Development in Monmouth County:
In 1899 a young Guglielmo Marconi came to Atlantic Highlands to demonstrate for the first time in America his newly-invented wireless transmission apparatus. The signals that he sent from the Twin Lights to a ship in Sandy Hook Bay became an important landmark in the history of communication.
Since that event, Monmouth County has been the site of a number of other landmark discoveries and inventions in communications. Karl Jansky discovered radio astronomy in Holmdel at a time when this county was considered to be "radio-quiet." In later decades satellite communications started here and the cellular network was conceived and designed. The faint radiation from the big bang that created the universe was first heard at a horn antenna on the hill across from where the Garden State Arts Center (now PNC Bank Center) would later be built. About 20,000 people worked in research and development at Bell Labs and at Fort Monmouth, which had responsibility for developing communications and electronics for the US Army.
Dr. Lucky was one of the first people to move into the new Bell Labs facility in Holmdel in early 1962. He was a manager in the Labs during what has been termed the "golden years" of about 1960 to 1980. For a number of years he headed the communications research division at the Labs, and later he headed research at Bellcore and Telcordia. In recent years he has had a unique position to consider the aftermath of the move of Fort Monmouth as chairman of the authority for planning the redevelopment.
Through the years Dr. Lucky has often been involved as an advisor to government, having been the chairman of the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, a member of the Defense Science Board, chairman of the Advisory Board at the Federal Communications Commission, and in other advisory boards and committees at the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, and at the Smithsonian. His PhD is in electrical engineering, he has received four honorary doctorates, and has won a number of awards including the Marconi Prize and the Edison Medal of the IEEE. He has authored three books, and written a regular column in Spectrum Magazine for the last 31 years. He has been an invited speaker at more than 100 different universities.
Dr. Lucky's lecture is open to the public and admission is free. Refreshments will be served.
Middletown Arts Center is accessible to persons with disabilities. If there are any special needs that require accommodation, please contact the Association at 732-462-1466 x16 within 24 hours of the presentation.
Monmouth County Historical Association is a private non-profit organization that has been working to preserve history and provide educational opportunities since its founding in 1898. The Association's Museum and Library is located at 70 Court Street, Freehold, New Jersey. Museum hours are: Tuesday - Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Library is open Wednesday through Saturday. For membership or admission fees and further information, please call (732) 462-1466 or visit our web site at www.monmouthhistory.org.
Monmouth County Historical Association received an operating support grant from the
New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.